Known by many but understood by few, Swami Vivekananda is a figure shrouded in mystery. However, in recent years there has been a greater tendency to understand, explain, and appropriate the monk and his legacy, especially by the Hindu Right. In Vivekananda: The Philosopher of Freedom, Govind Krishnan V. contests the Hindu Right’s appropriation of Swami Vivekananda, arguably one of the most influential and defining figures of modern Hinduism. He attempts to show the reader that Vivekananda’s religious philosophy, social thought, and ideology are the very antithesis of Hindutva. 

Divided into three sections, this book brings into focus multiple facets of Vivekananda’s short but eventful life. ‘Part I: Life, Ideology, and Historical Context’ begins with a short biography of Swami Vivekananda before examining how the RSS and the Sangh have used Hindu symbols, motifs, and issues like Ram Janmabhoomi, and contrasting this usage with Vivekananda’s Hinduism. It then explores Vivekananda’s early understanding of and relationship with Islam and Christianity. The section ends with an examination of the role Western civilization plays in Vivekananda’s and the RSS’s respective world views and the obvious clash between the former’s internationalism and the latter’s nativism. ‘Part II: Hinduism, the Sangh, and the West’ introduces the reader to important features of Vivekananda’s writing and thinking which have become lost to our public memory. It explores Vivekananda’s views on themes relevant to the Hindutva project: Indian civilization, society, and culture; the nature of the caste system and Brahminism; the history of Islam in India; attitudes towards Islam and Christianity; Hindu mythology, belief, and rituals; individual liberty; attitudes towards the West; and so on. Finally, it situates Vivekananda’s public life in the global context during a period of much change in fin de siècle Europe and America. Also surveyed is the cultural and intellectual framework of colonialism within which Vivekananda operated. The last section of the book, ‘Part III: Vivekananda’s Philosophy’, begins with an exposition of Vivekananda’s philosophy of universal religion and his theoretical framework and an explication of his famous assertion that religion should conform to reason as much as science does. The closing part of the book deals with Vivekananda’s position on caste and gender and posits him as an anti caste and proto-feminist reformer of his time. Cogently argued, Vivekananda: The Philosopher of Freedom pulls back the curtain on Vivekananda’s outlook and shows why the great monk deserves to be reinstated as a liberal thinker in the popular cultural imagination.